Since January, the term knife crime has been used more than 1,500 times by the national press - and it is a fair bet that most media images associated with these figures will be of young black men. Unsurprisingly, this is leading to a growing sense of frustration among black community leaders, academics and, not least, black youngsters themselves, over what they see as blatant misrepresentation.
Black youths who fit this media stereotype represent a tiny fraction of the young black population as a whole, they argue, and while negative stories about black teenagers are almost guaranteed headlines, the positive achievements of black youth go largely ignored.
This trend has consequences beyond creating an unbalanced picture. Numerous studies have shown a clear link between media furore and draconian policy-making, says Kjartan Sveinsson, the author of a Runnymede Trust report on the ways in which popular understandings of race and crime influence media reporting, and vice versa. "The tragedy is this can increase racial tension on the street and do little to stem the violence," he says.
Which in turn, of course, leads to further reports of violence, and the circle continues. In April 2007, for instance, after a number of high-profile shootings in south London, Tony Blair made a speech to the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce. Was he perhaps responding to media pressure when he asked: "When are we going to start saying this [gang crime] is a problem amongst a section of the black community and not, for reasons of political correctness, pretend it has nothing to do with it?"
There was no ambiguity when David Cameron spoke after the death of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool, singling out the media by saying: "Deaths by fists, knives and guns are becoming a regular feature of British news ... these murders must draw a line in the sand."
In Manchester, one group of black teenagers, who believe they should have made headlines for the right reasons, are angry at their treatment by the media. So much so they have published an open letter on the subject (see below
The Reclaim project began as a pilot in the autumn of 2007 at Urbis, an exhibition centre in Manchester, to work with 12-14-year-old boys from Moss Side and other perceived trouble spots in the city. The idea was spawned as a reaction to rising youth violence and the negative portrayal of young people, especially from the African-Caribbean community.
The project involves six months of intensive mentoring and events, including working with local statutory bodies and creative and sports providers. Self-development, discipline and anger-management courses form part of the syllabus, along with teamwork and respect for legitimate authority. Children on the project have drawn up an advisory document on combating gun and knife crime and presented it to Gordon Brown.
The scheme has been a remarkable success - and Reclaim has become synonymous with a powerful youth voice. Its story should be positive, but some of the young people involved feel they have been either ignored or that when journalists have turned up, most have only wanted to question them on guns and gangs.
In particular, some of the boys were unhappy about their treatment at the hands of a production company filming a documentary. They say they had understood it would be about their involvement with Reclaim, but the interviewer constantly brought up the subject of guns and gangs.
Fair representation?
On one occasion, the boys had been to a formal meeting and were wearing suits. According to 14-year-old Akeim, he and other boys were asked to go home and change into tracksuits and hooded tops and were then interviewed in the park where a 15-year-old boy, Jessie James, was murdered. Another boy, Amari, says the programme, shown on Channel 4 in July, failed to include a single mention of the Reclaim project and "was all about Jessie James". The interviewer asked whether he, or any of the other boys, had ever shot anybody, or been shot at, Amari says.
C4 says the producers "strongly feel" the young men were accurately and fairly represented in the short film, which was shown as part of a season of programmes about gun and knife crime. The boys were filmed where they said they regularly spend their time and were happy to be interviewed in those locations. They were not asked to dress in a way they wouldn't normally, and there was no intention or attempt to portray the young people as stereotypical or negative characters, the broadcaster says.
Professor Gus John, a fellow of the Institute of Education at the University of London, works closely with families affected by violence in Manchester. "When blac black males with k youths read about themselves," he says, "it goes something like this: you are a persistently under-performing group; you are six times more likely to be excluded from school and be a young offender; you may already be in a gang, or likely to join one. The likely causes of your condition are: absentee fathers; absence of positive role models; and being surrounded by women who cannot control or motivate you. You aim too low and do not believe people like you can succeed."
Cracker creator blasts 'chav' TV
Studio bosses 'ridicule white working classes'
One of Britain's most celebrated screenwriters has launched a blistering attack on the makers of so-called trash TV, accusing them of exploiting the white, working classes for their own amusement and entertainment.
Jimmy McGovern, who created Cracker and acclaimed dramas including Hillsborough, condemned 'latte-drinking, pesto-eating middle-class' TV executives, saying their treatment of Britain's working classes was not only patronising and offensive but also potentially dangerous. At a debate titled Chav TV at the Edinburgh Television Festival, panellists discussed whether the white working class was the only group left that it was acceptable to ridicule openly.
Reality television shows such as Wife Swap, Big Brother and the confessional Jeremy Kyle Show, which tend to rely on working-class participants in search of fame or fortune, were the focus of most criticism. But the portrayal of the working classes in comedy programmes such as Little Britain and dramas like Shameless were also debated.
McGovern accused industry executives of treating their audience with contempt: 'Normally, they would look to people on the left to speak up for them, but they haven't. Because they're not sexy. Unlike black lesbians, white, working-class men aren't sexy. So they are either ignored or patronised.
'I am delighted to see the state ITV are in. It is simply because they have utter contempt for their audience. These executives don't sit around and say, what kind of intelligent, informative, thought-provoking programmes would we like to watch? They think, what will the ignorant plebs that watch our channel want to see? They have total contempt for their audience, which is largely working class.' His comments come after Charles Allen, ITV's chief executive, who will step down in October, defended his much-criticised tenure at Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster. Speaking at the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture, Allen, who was ousted following investor dismay at ITV's flagging share price, admitted that some of ITV's problems were 'self-inflicted'.
However, he said the channel would only thrive if his successor sorted out 'the public service broadcasting hand tied behind our back and the CRR [the Contract Rights Renewal system, which limits the amount ITV1 can charge advertisers] gun to our head'.
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